So Many Shades of Blue
by ClockworkSky
Summary: Holly reflects on some things and has a slightly awkward conversation with Artemis via the communicator. AH but in a vague way.


**So Many Shades of Blue**

Word Count: 1299

Pairings/Characters: Artemis/Holly, Artemis Fowl II, Holly Short

Spoiler Warnings: Some allusions to events in TOD and TLC

Betas, other credit: youreyesaregems from Livejournal

Summary: Holly reflects on some things and has a slightly awkward conversation with Artemis via the communicator.

Warnings/Notes: This story got away from me a bit. This is for the "Blue" prompt for my otp100 (livejournal community) Artemis/Holly claim. It does mention blue a lot! Also, I used the communicator idea from The Opal Deception rather than the updated concept in The Lost Colony. Does anyone know if the two or the same or why they changed?

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Holly Short turned over on her futon onto her back, looking up at the ceiling of her bedroom. It was growing nearing night on the surface, and the automated sunlight of Haven slowly seeped through her window. Holly inhaled deeply and stretched as she sat up, looking as cat-like as she ever did, and looked around the dimly lit room. She yawned once and rubbed her eyes as she turned to put her feet on the floor.

Her eyes, she thought as she went to draw her bath. They weren't hers, were they? Only one of them was. She laughed a little at herself as she wondered what the eye she had lost in exchange was seeing- or rather, what its new owner was doing.

Holly removed her sweatpants and was in the middle of removing a worn Police Academy green tee shirt when she let the material fall back around her petite, athletic frame. She left the water running, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror- one hazel eye, one blue.

A moment later she seized what she was looking for among the pile of things that littered her bedside table as if it might run away. The little communicator safely in hand, she headed back to the bath.

Holly tapped a button and the water stopped flowing into the tub. She navigated the communicator's buttons with her agile thumb until she found the appropriate screen:

No New Messages

Holly put the communicator back in stand-by mode and set it on the sink before removing the remainder of her sleeping clothes and slipping into the hot water. She gave a perfunctory and habitual glance to the moon-o-meter on the wall, her mind drifting back- three years for her, five for the rest of the world- to the day that had changed everything.

She had been late that morning.

Holly smiled as she reached for her soap. She could still remember the way Commander Root had quivered when he yelled at her. Holly stopped for a moment, a deep, dark blue feeling seeping through her body like frostbite. Sometimes she still, for a moment, thought that he might yell at her again, but she'd just as quickly realize, with startling clarity, that he never would.

Holly shook herself. Some memories were too painful to visit for long. She reached for her razor- crude, but still an efficient tool- and went about the task of shaving her legs.

Frostbite, she thought, glancing at the index finger of her right hand. The deep impression, lighter than the skin around it, was still there.

Holly stopped her hand, thoughtfully looking at the scar, leaving the razor aligned against her skin. She glanced up at the sink and at the communicator, a strand of her auburn hair catching her attention as it fell in front of her left eye. Her fingernails weren't the only thing that had grown on Hybras. She cast her eyes back down and looked at her rib cage, her left hand tentatively touching the place where another scar should be, one much greater than the scar on her trigger finger.

The hand that was holding the razor relaxed a bit as she thought. A scar had been there- a gaping hole. Holly felt the blue tendrils flowing through her mind as she tried to grasp a memory that wasn't hers, a memory of what had never been- a memory which rightfully belonged only to Artemis.

The blue she felt now wasn't dark, it wasn't cold- it wasn't grief. The blue she felt as she tried to reach back for the phantom memory she had found in Artemis's mind was warm, a guiding light. It was magic.

Holly almost cried out when her near-trance was broken by the communicator beeping to life, causing her to flinch. The little razor caught just beneath her skin, a small amount of elfin blood mixing with the water before she could whisper, "Heal."

"Holly?" Artemis asked in his soft Irish accent as the communicator's screen winked on.

Holly glanced around almost frantically for a moment, though she knew it was ridiculous. The sound quality on the communicator was too good- it had scared her nearly half to death. She would have to have a word with Foaly about that, she thought, as she got out of the water quickly and wrapped a towel around herself.

"Artemis," she replied finally as she sat on the edge of the sink, communicator in hand.

"Yes," Artemis replied evenly. His mouth started to form a characteristic smirk, but the longer he looked at the screen the more he struggled not to blush. Artemis almost never blushed, but his pubescent mind could not help scanning his eyes- well, one of his eyes and one of hers at any rate- over Holly's bare shoulders, down her collar bone, and lower until finally he was relieved to see the white towel she was clutching around her chest. His eyes glanced behind her and into the mirror's reflection.

"You're in the bath?" he deduced eventually, having surprising trouble with keeping his voice steady.

"Yeah," Holly answered quick, clinching her towel tighter with her fist, her cheeks blushing slightly too, though it was less apparent against her coffee-brown skin.

Artemis exhaled, seemingly relieved.

"Then why did you answer?" he asked casually, evasively looking at the dirt, which they both knew was imaginary, beneath his fingernails.

"It was you," Holly replied before she thought it through. "It might have been something important," she added quickly.

"Right," Artemis replied at length. He was at a loss for anything further to say. Holly was beginning to leave him speechless with startling regularity, and, rather than his usual drive to investigate further, he felt the need to ignore it.

His awkward silence was broken when Holly laughed at his obvious discomfort. She smiled sweetly when Artemis dared look back at her through the screen.

"I'll call you back?" she offered.

"Certainly," the human teenager replied, and Holly could have sworn she heard his voice break. The screen went black before she could laugh at him again.

Holly finished her bath, and then returned to the sink to comb her short hair, her eyes occasionally glancing around at the counter and at the communicator.

She leaned forward a bit against her palms, looking at her eyes, the blue one attracting her attention. She tried to remember all the times that same eye had sent chills up her spine. It was a cold blue, like ice.

Her mind wandered back to the recent past to the day- if you could call it a day- on Hybras. She remembered with a surreal and vivid clarity the last time both of Artemis's blue eyes had looked at her. They weren't cold then.

_"Holly, let me look at you."_

Artemis's voice echoed in her mind.

He saved me, she remembered again, though the natural part of her, the part of her mind that insisted that things make sense, denied it.

_ "It never happened."_

…But it had.

Holly felt a brief and odd pang at the thought that she would never again see both blue eyes looking at her at the same time. Immediately she scolded herself for the thought and looked down guiltily from the one in her presence.

Her eyes fell to the scar on her trigger finger and she smiled, glancing up at her reflection once again before picking up the communicator and going to get dressed. She may not ever see Artemis with both his blue eyes again, but one of them would always be part of her.

Artemis Fowl had left his mark on many things, and some of them were not good to say the least. Still, there are some scars you don't let go of…

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This is my first Artemis Fowl fanfic in an extremely long time, and I'm not terribly happy with it but it's all that came to mind for the prompt. Tell me what you think?


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